本論文以描述的觀點探討事件參與者在魯凱語多納方言中的構詞語法表現，包括格位標記系統和代名詞系統。魯凱語是台灣南島語的一支，而使用者多納方言的魯凱族主要分布於高雄縣茂林鄉多納村。
本論文共分四章。第一章簡介多納魯凱語的地理位置及語言背景、本論文的研究方法、音韻系統和動詞詞型變化。
第二章探討多納魯凱語的格位標記系統。該方言共有兩組格位標記：ki和-an«屬於人稱專有名詞，區分為主格/屬格和斜格；ko和na屬於普通名詞，格位標記功能已經消失，反而表現出「前指」與「非前指」功能的分別。再者，人稱專有名詞的格位標記一定要出現，而普通名詞的格位標記則可省略，但是根據名詞的定指性和在不同的句法結構中會有例外產生。名詞片語的詞序基本上是自由的，但是當格位標記無法指出其句法上的角色時，詞序固定為「動詞─主詞─受詞」。此外，本章也討論了複合名詞片語的內部詞序。接著在有關人類的名詞使用上，發現兩組格位標記皆可使用，此現象反映出說話者可藉由使用不同的格位標記來改變名詞的語意性質。本章最後討論格位標記在名物化的詞或子句中之使用情形。
第三章探討代名詞系統。以句法功能而論，多納魯凱語有五組人稱代名詞：主題、自由式主格、附著式主格、斜格和屬格。主題代名詞出現在謂語之前，作為句子的主題，和自由式主格同樣的詞形，但是可附加主題標記a-並且後面跟著ka。自由式主格代名詞作為主要子句及補語子句的主詞。附著式主格代名詞加在動詞詞幹之前，可標示說話者/主事者的意願；在命令句中則有強調主事者或命令者的功能。此外，我們發現附著式主格代名詞只用在非實現式的語態中。斜格代名詞基本上作為句子的受詞，不過還可以用來標示一些靜態動詞的經驗者、親屬關係中的所有者，也可以表示時間與地點。屬格代名詞作為領屬關係中的所有者；在疑問句和從屬子句中作為主事者，在這兩種句構中，發現屬格代名詞會與否定詞i-/非實現詞素ni-有語音同化的現象。再者，本章亦討論了代名詞與名詞片語的詞序、代名詞變體出現的語境、第三人稱代名詞的相關特性(包含指示代名詞和可見性)、發現一組非人稱代名詞的使用時機、複數代名詞指涉的慣用法、及人稱代名詞與普通名詞片語共同指涉的用法。
第四章總結本論文的研究結果，並對未來所要作的研究提出一些看法。附錄則收錄了以前有關多納魯凱語格位標記系統與代名詞系統的研究，並以表格呈現之。

This thesis investigates the Tona dialect of Rukai, a Formosan language spoken in the Tona Village, Maolin County, Kaohsiung Prefecture, Taiwan. The aim of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive description of the morphosyntactic manifestations of participants including the nominal case marking system and the pronominal system.
The thesis is organized into four chapters: Chapter One provides a general geographical and linguistic background of Tona (Rukai). It contains the research method and a brief introduction to the phonological system and verb conjugation.
Chapter Two investigates the nominal case marking system. First, there are two sets of case markers in Tona. The ones for personal proper nouns, ki and -an«, distinguish the nominative/genitive case and the oblique case. Those for common nouns have been neutralized in case distinction but indicate an anaphoric vs. non-anaphoric contrast (ko vs. na). Second, concerning obligatority, the case markers for personal proper nouns are canonically obligatory while those for common nouns are optional. However, they may behave differently according to the definiteness of the head nouns and linguistic structures. Third, the word order of lexical arguments is basically free unless the case markers fail to distinguish their grammatical roles, where the order appears to be VSO. The internal ordering of complex NPs is also discussed. Fourth, an overlapped use of different sets of case markers is found in human nouns, which shows the shift of semantic properties of human nouns. Finally, case markers can be used in nominalized words or clauses.
Chapter Three discusses the pronominal system. There are five sets of personal pronouns: topic, free nominative, bound nominative, oblique and genitive. Topic pronouns with the same forms as free nominative set serve as the topic of a sentence. They appear before the predicates, followed by ka or/and prefixed by a-. Free nominative pronouns serve as the subject in a matrix or complement clause. Bound nominative pronouns are prefixed to non-finite verbs. They may designate volition of the speaker/agent and serve an emphatic function in imperative sentences but always appear in the irrealis mode. Oblique pronouns canonically serve the object role but in Tona they can also denote experiencers of some stative verbs, designate possessive relation in kinship, time and location. Genitive pronouns denote the possessors in possessive relation. In Tona, they are used in interrogative sentences and subordinate clauses to designate the agent role. Besides, they are assimilated with the negator i- and the irrealis morpheme ni- in these two structures. In addition, this chapter also discusses word order of pronouns and lexical noun phrases, the types of environment where variants of pronouns appear, some idiosyncratic features of third person pronouns including demonstratives and visibility, the contexts for the use of impersonal pronouns, some referential features of plural pronouns and a coreferential property of pronouns and lexical NPs.
Chapter Four sums up the findings and provides suggestions for future research. The previous analyses concerning the case marking system and the pronominal system of Tona (Rukai) are presented in tables in the appendices.

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